infection
Pluralinfections
- 1A disease caused by the presence of a harmful pathogen in the body.
The neglected wound turned into a serious infection within days.
Untreated infections can spread from the lungs to other organs.
Note
Once it is a diagnosis, the word is counted and classified. Its modifiers name where the illness sits or what causes it: uterine and mammary infections, fungus infections, a delayed infection that may not show itself for years. This is the sense behind most plurals and clinical labels, so it combines freely with an organ, an organism or a time course placed before it.
- 2A condition in which harmful microorganisms multiply unchecked inside a host organism.
Antibiotics target the infection by killing the multiplying bacteria.
A weakened immune system lets infections take hold more easily.
- 3The act or process by which a pathogen enters a host and begins to cause disease.
Proper sterilization greatly reduces the risk of infection during surgery.
Mosquitoes are responsible for the infection of millions of people with malaria each year.
Similarcontamination, contagion
Note
Pathology separates the event from its outcome. Here infection names what happens when a pathogen gets in, not the illness that may follow, which is the disease itself. The word is simply infect + -ion, from Late Latin īnfectiō through Old French, and it works like other process nouns. It is uncountable in phrases like the risk of infection, and it takes of for whoever is infected and with for the disease.
- 4A visible sign of infection, such as the formation of pus in a wound.
The swelling and discharge were clear signs of infection at the wound site.
Doctors look for visible infection before deciding how to treat the cut.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of infection apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Old French infection, which came from Late Latin īnfectiō. It is equivalent to 'infect' plus the suffix '-ion'.